Should we immediatley retire the 'Head of Innovation' at every large company?

I want to expand on the idea of innovation. Or, rather the possible death of corporate innovation as we, in the last few years, have come to know it…

Today I had an excellent breakfast discussion with a dear friend and fellow innovation-book author during Slush in Helsinki. The discussion, like som many others, took the path of the state of affairs in our current innovation system and the role of large companies and government. 

The sad truth is that very few large companies have been created in the nordics the last 40 years. Quite opposite from common discourse, the stock exchange in the Nordic region is quite stable and dominated by the same few companies year after year. (America is different… America needs it’s own article/book and I will leave this out right now). 

The stability and predictability of the Nordic economies and political systems is quite special. Arguably one of the strongest USP’s (Unique Selling Points) for investors. Another, is the famous work ethic where Nordic workers instead of loosing focus during the depressingly dark winter months, huddle up and start to churn out new patents and lyrics for hit songs... 

But, there seems to be a flip side to all of this. Where the unicorn factory is one side of the coin, we have another that is more problematic... There seems to be a shift happening in front of our eyes that is so obvious we have not noticed it (not seeing the forrest for all the trees etc…). 

The feeling that myself and my friend shared over breakfast is one of frustration and slight despair. Possibly a side effect of the aforementioned structure, work ethic and heads-down approach of large companies in the region. Perhaps a direct effect even. 

The feeling is that innovation as we know it is coming to an end. 

In order to explain exactly what our discussion gravitated around we need to take a step back and try to birds-eye the situation at hand. 

The context is that we are sitting at a quiet table having breakfast after the first day of Slush in Helsinki. Slush is a tech-extravaganza-conference where all the best and brightest gather to discuss entrepreneurship, innovation and new technology in general. It's a place for budding entrepreneurs and industrialists to meet and promote themselves. It is a place where large companies come to 'be-like-them'…

Yet, something was not quite right. We were both puzzled. Maybe we managed to miss the exact point in time during the past day when everything was perfect, but… Our perception was that hardly anyone was really working with technology innovation, for real… Let's expand on this.

The majority of companies at the show (our estimate) were working with adaptations and use cases of existing technology. New ways to hammer the nail, so to speak… 

And not only that. A majority of the pitching companies are working business models that are quite easy to emulate too. 

Listening carefully and abstracting the information was very much like listening to a pet parrot on the shoulder of a pirate, repeating over and over again what is in the current zeitgeist. 

We saw countless pitches of companies 'being awesome' by inventing the AirBnB for this and the über for that… “Gamifying” the user experience and “Tindering” the UI. “Spotifying” the construction process etc. 

Sorry, this might sting, but there were not very many ‘big ideas’… Very few 'colonize-mars' speakers. Very few ‘dents in the universe’… But then again, thats where large companies and goverments come on to the scene right? The ones with all the resources and money?!? 

Nope. 

We get that this show is for the next-big-thing. But, why did we not see the next-big-thing pitched on stage?  Where are the next Econoclasts?

It dawned upon us there, apparently almost at the exact same moment in time, that it seems very much like the large companies, that we pride ourselves of having in the Nordics, might have lost their self-esteem. And not only the Nordic companies, quite a few very large international ones too. These large corporations that have built much of their heritage on deep technology innovation have come to the point where Slush, and it's 'wantepreneurs', are the gold standard… "Let’s try to be like them”. 

One example that comes to mind is a large supplier in the telco space (see, none mentioned by name this time…) that decided to focus basically their entire booth on VR-content when in reality they probably are investing the majority of R&D money at the very cutting edge of 5G and Cloud computing… Highlighting the latter was probably deemed as a less appropriate way to promote the company at Slush. Rather, the eye-catching and easily understood VR headsets took center stage.

Adding insult to injury for its employees, this company is most likely one of few companies at the show that is investing in the R (in R&D), for real.

Another proof point is that basically every “old gen” industrial company was talking about becoming a “tech company”. Like being a tech-company means being cool and no longer left out of the party. Case in point; for gods sake you huge-industrial-player-at-slush (you know who you are)! You make frickin Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanners and DNA sequencers. Most likely the coolest technology in the universe. You do basic scientific research! You don’t get more tech. You are tech!

Last example close to my heart is of course telcos. The 'old and boring’ telcos are, and will be, investing heavily in 5G. This is no über-for-mobiles… 5G is a huge investment for the benefit of both the company and society as a whole. It is also a quantum-leap in technology. As an outsider it is easy to dismiss it as another incremental update and 'increase in speed'. But if you, as an entrepreneur default to this thinking, you might miss an opportunity of a lifetime… Many of the current 'new industries' will be affected and possibly disrupted by this new technology. Just wait and see. Alternatively, you can bring your best engineers forward and read up on the possibilities…    

So to conclude. Why did I mention that Innovation as we know it is dead? Well, if innovation is what we witnessed from many pitching companies at Slush and if it means following the Zeitgeist of 'AirBnB-ing' everything, then I hereby declare to no longer be the Head of Innovation. I want to move the needle, I am interested in forwarding societies (and my company) in a non-incremental way. I am interested in creating great businesses based on “deep technology” that will last… Simply adapting and finding new business models alone, we can leave for others. 

Call to action is the following: Large company execs!

1) Don’t be afraid to bring forward, even at laser-and-fire-conferances like Slush, the basic science and brutally hard problems your are solving every day. Bring on your geek-of-geeks and I promise you that you have a better payoff in terms of employer branding. 

2) Don’t be afraid to talk about the huge impacts on society that new technologies such as 5G (or e.g. cheaper DNA sequencing) will have, we all know that ‘millenials’ are mission driven (so, guess who wins when comparing AirBnB-for-pets and somebody bringing life changing high speed internet to the unbanked of the world). 

and lastly  

3) Dear CEO’s of large Tech companies (in particular), don’t try to be the Entrepreneurs-best-friend, this will not end well, you will never ever be like them. You are different. Instead, you should be your customers (and the governments) best friend… Want to help the ‘eco-system'? Then focus on providing liquidity in the form of investments and supplier contracts to the entrepreneurs! The best kind of funding. But, don’t try to become the ‘entrepreneurial’ brand… At least not if it needs to look like at lightning-and-fireworks-conferances without really sustainable new technology and content as a foundation.